Drawing on Forced Marriage: Teaching Tough Topics Through Comics

Responding to a call for forced marriage education, the project aimed to demonstrate that comics are an effective tool to educate teenagers about forced marriage and equip them to raise awareness and act as allies to those at risk or already experiencing forced marriage.
To this end, the project team created a comic that focuses on different forms, drivers, and consequences of forced marriage in the UK, and on possibilities for resistance and interventions to provide support. The comic was trialled in two workshops for 19 Year 8 – 9 students in two secondary schools in England. The effectiveness of the comic as a tool to educate teenagers about forced marriage and equip them to raise awareness and act as allies to those at risk or already experiencing forced marriage was assessed through Likert-scale self-assessment questionnaires that were completed at the beginning and end of the trial sessions. One of the trials was a full-day session at which a mid-day questionnaire was added to the ones at the beginning and end of the session.
The project team included Nottingham Girls’ Academy and Childwall Spots and Science Academy, Karma Nirvana and Savera UK, Nottingham City Council and the University of Nottingham.